What went on behind locked door? State health official won't say, gets fired

Wednesday

Jun 18, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 18, 2014 at 12:17 PM

A top Ohio Department of Health administrator has been fired for refusing to answer questions about why he was with a female subordinate behind a locked office door on a Sunday night. Steven A. Wagner, chief of the division of prevention and health promotion, was fired from his $102,835-a-year job by interim Director Lance Himes on June 10.

Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch

A top Ohio Department of Health administrator has been fired for refusing to answer questions about why he was with a female subordinate behind a locked office door on a Sunday night.

Steven A. Wagner, chief of the division of prevention and health promotion, was fired from his $102,835-a-year job by interim Director Lance Himes on June 10.

Wagner, 49, a 25-year employee and one of three division chiefs, was fired for discrediting the state agency and refusing to comply with a department investigation, Himes wrote.

About 10 p.m. on June 1, a security guard reported hearing “inappropriate noises” — whispers, giggling and flirtatious talk — between a man and woman in a locked office at the agency’s Downtown headquarters.

A man answered the door 30 to 45 seconds after the security guard knocked, and he and a woman assured the guard everything was “fine,” according to agency documents.

Wagner later declined to answer questions about why he was with Nicole Brennan, 34, chief of the Healthy Ohio program, in her office on a weekend night.

Key-card records showed both also were in Health Department headquarters for three hours the previous night.

In a letter a couple of days later, Wagner wrote that he could not answer questions because of personal confidences with Brennan. Both denied having an affair and said they were working on personal writing projects.

Brennan was demoted by Himes on June 10 to a classified position as a health-planning administrator, with a pay cut of nearly $5,000, to $71,402 annually.